Three Girls And A Leading Man (25 page)

I grinned. “Oops. I hope you don’t
have any false ideas that I might have planned this to avoid doing Jen’s
errands.”

Nate rolled his eyes. “Sure you
didn’t. How about you open the door? This is a little heavy, you know.”

I opened the door to our house and
let him walk in ahead of me. “Hello!” I called out. “I’m home!”

“It’s about time,” Jen said,
appearing in the doorway to the kitchen. “Nate, take those into the dining
room, there’s a dessert table by the window.”

I rolled my eyes at him as he
passed and he sighed dramatically.

“Don’t be so bossy,” I told Jen.
“You’re the one who wanted to do all this. We would have been happy with pizza
and beer.”

“You need a proper house-warming
party,” she said. “This is a huge deal, Annie!”

“I know,” I told her, walking past
her into the kitchen to grab a water. “Whoever would have thought that I’d be
living with a boy?”

“Not me,” she muttered.

“Be nice!” I told her. “I could
still change my mind and move back to Ferndale with you and Matt.”

“Not a chance,” Nate said, coming
up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist. “You signed a mortgage,
baby. You’re stuck with me.”

“I guess I am,” I said, smiling.
“Poor me.”

***

Three hours later, the party was in
full swing and our house was full.

“I love this place,” Matt was
saying to Josh as the two of them examined the oak banister. “The architecture
is so cool. All this woodwork? I bet it’s original to the house.” As I passed
them, I caught a glimpse of Jen rolling her eyes behind his back. I smiled at
her, but to be honest, I was on Matt’s side on this one.

I had never thought I’d care too
much about the kind of house I lived in, but once Nate and I started looking, I
found that there was an undiscovered real estate fanatic buried deep inside. I
was particularly fascinated with the old Victorians that dotted this area of
Detroit and it was no surprise that we ended up in one. Nate and I had looked
for ages before settling on this house. It was much too big for just the two of
us, but I loved it anyhow. From the woodwork, to the original claw foot tub, to
the turret attic room, it was the most perfect house I could imagine.

“Hey, Annie,” a voice hissed in my
ear.

I turned and saw Emily, Nate’s
sister, hovering at my elbow. She had come in for the week to check out our new
place and spend some time with her big brother. I had been relieved to find
that she and I got along really well. I knew that it made Nate happy.

“Is that Jenner Collins over
there?” she whispered, pointing into the dining room.

I squinted in that direction and
saw Jenner with a stunningly pretty blond woman at his side.

“Yup,” I said. “And that girl with
him is Melinda Berry. You know, from that sitcom, Sisters?”

Emily gasped. “Wow! Oh my God. I
can’t believe I’m in the same room as Melinda Berry. And Jenner Collins! This
is so cool!”

I grinned at her. “Go find your
brother,” I told her. “He’ll introduce you.”

“Look at you,” Ginny said, coming
up next to me as Emily scurried off. “Making nice with the in-laws.”

I rolled my eyes. “You have to be
married to have in-laws,” I pointed out.

“Still,” she said, putting her arm
around me. “I’m proud of you.”

“Why are you proud of her? I’m the
one who planned this whole thing,” Jen said, joining us.

“I wasn’t talking about the party,”
Ginny said. “I was talking about Annie’s emotional growth.”

“Oh, that. Yeah, I’m proud of that
too.”

“Oh, shut up,” I told them. “You
make it sound like I was a basket case or something.”

“We’re just happy that you’re
happy,” Jen said, putting her arm around me as well. “You are happy, aren’t
you?”

I thought about that. At that
precise moment, tired was probably the best word for how I was feeling. I had
been working long hours at The Brush Theater, Jenner’s new company. I had a
supporting role in the first production, set to open in July. Beyond that, I
was working my ass off to get the education department set up, as well as
helping out to get the artist-in-residence program off the ground. It was
exhausting work, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Most of my spare time had been
going into this house. Like many of the places on the street, this one had been
a real dump when we first found it. But a lot of renovation was happening on
this block. Like many of our neighbors, we were determined to bring our home
back to its former glory. It was a work in progress, but I was very happy with
all we had done so far. And who would have guessed that I would actually enjoy
things like stripping hard wood floors, or re-tiling kitchens?

I caught sight of Nate across the
room, leaving his gushing sister with an amused-looking Jenner, and I smiled.
To tell the truth, I would probably enjoy just about any chore so long as I got
to do it with Nate.

“Oh my God,” Ginny said, laughing.
“If you could see the look on your face right now!”

“What?” I said.

“You’re smiling like a lovesick
teenager.”

“Oh, I am not,” I said, feeling
embarrassed.

“You are,” Jen agreed. “Don’t
worry, it’s cute. And we won’t tell anyone.”

“So I guess that answers Jen’s
question,” Ginny said. “You are happy, aren’t you?”

“I am,” I said.

Across the room, I saw my mom
chatting with Mrs. Campbell. My dad had hung around for a few months, taking
her out every once in a while and hinting that he might like a reunion. I
hadn’t heard about him in a few weeks now, and I wondered if he had disappeared
again. Or maybe she’d actually done the unthinkable and told him to get lost. I
could hope.

“What if it doesn’t last?” I
whispered. It was my biggest fear, one I didn’t even like to talk to Nate
about, but I could ask the girls. They would understand. “What if something
goes wrong?”

“Then we’ll help you fix it,” Ginny
said, releasing my shoulder and reaching over to grab my hand. “No matter what
happens with Nate, we’ll be here, Annie. The same way we always have been.”

I squeezed her hand back, believing
her. It was the one thing in my life I had never doubted.

The three of us stood like that for
a long moment, watching the friends and family who had gathered to help
celebrate my new home. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nate now approaching
Josh and Danny. He reached out and patted Danny’s head, saying something to him
that made the baby laugh. Ginny squeezed my hand again.

Watching Nate, I felt warmth spread
throughout my chest, bringing certainty with it. I had a feeling I had finally
found something else that I didn’t have to doubt.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR

Rachel
Schurig lives in the metro Detroit area with her dog, Lucy. She loves to watch
reality TV, and she reads as many books as she can get her hands on. In her
spare time, Rachel decorates cakes.

To find out more
about the books in this series, visit Rachel at
http://rachelschurig.com

Interested in reading more from this author?

Check out the rest of the best-selling
Three Girls
series, available now from Amazon.com

Come along for the crazy ride
as Ginny McKensie and her best friends deal with an unexpected pregnancy in
Three Girls and a Baby
, available now!

Three
Girls and a Baby

Follow Jen Campbell as she
struggles to plan the perfect wedding—and find her very own happily ever
after.
Three Girls and a Wedding
is
available now!

Three
Girls and a Wedding

Reunite with Ginny, Jen, and Annie and catch up with Kiki
Barker-Thompson as she attempts to create the perfect fairy tale life.
The Truth About Ever After
(a Three
Girls Book) is available now!

The
Truth About Ever After

And don’t forget to check
out the newest book from Rachel Schurig

IN SEARCH OF A LOVE STORY

Emily
Donovan doesn’t have a romantic bone in her body.

At least,
that’s what her friends Ryan and Ashley keep telling her. They’re convinced her
bad luck with men is directly related to her life-long lack of interest in all
things romantic. When Emily’s latest relationship crashes and burns, she
decides to go along with her friends’ plans for a romance research project.
Sure, the idea that she’ll have better luck if she learns about the great
romances of literature and film seems a little silly, but Emily figures it
can’t hurt.

In no time
at all, Emily finds herself buried under a mountain of romance novels, chick
flicks, and sappy love songs, hopeful that her hard work will pay off with true
love. When she meets Greg, Ashley and Ryan are convinced she’s found prince
charming—after all, he’s rich, handsome, and totally into Emily. What
more could she want? And why does it seem that her friend Elliot isn’t
exactly happy for her?

Faced with misunderstandings,
miscommunications, and a seemingly endless string of missteps, she is
nevertheless determined to give true love a try. In doing so, Emily will
eventually find that true romance, the kind that lasts, has little to do with
stereotypes or clichés, and everything to do with finding out what’s in her own
heart.

Available now from
amazon.com!

In
Search of a Love Story

##